I know it was J’s birthday a few weeks back but there was something I wanted to tell you but I was too ashamed.

I had to make a cake mix cake.

GASP!!

I have never claimed to be a baker but on occasion I ignore that part of my brain and attempt to show off my sweet side. Well, apparently being sweet or cooking sweets requires you need to be some sort of scientist, which I am not. I prefer not to measure, and I prefer not to follow directions if at all possible (when cooking). This makes it very difficult when you need to make a birthday cake. This cake to be exact. Oh how pretty she is.

I imagined myself slicing into this decedent looking cake to show off a thick, sweet, golden caramel sauce oozing from its layers. Well, I spent all my time attempting the caramel that I didn’t have the time to make a proper cake, resulting in a cake mix.

My first attempt is thanks to David Lebovitz on how to make the perfect caramel. I started with the dry caramel method, mentioned in his post, but things quickly went sideways due to an unreasonable high cooking temperature I accidentally used. It started smoking right away and immediately started to burn. I then added the cream anyway and it was lumpy and almost curdled.

 I didn’t want the caramel to defeat me so I youtubed several video’s on how to make caramel and tried again. This time I couldn’t get the sugar to stop creeping up the side of the pot. One single crystal apparently can ruin the caramel and I have several crystals.

 What I ended up with was a rock hard sheet of candy. It was like glass and I am sure could be also used as a weapon. It tasted much better but for the sake of our teeth and the look of the cake I didn’t crush it up and put it into the cake. Maybe if you have a loved one in prison that needs self defence, you could use that method.

Does anyone have a fool proof way of caramel making? Practice makes perfect so I shall try again……to be continued.